Screening diabetes patients for TB proves effective at community health level in China

A five-year project designed to improve case detection and treatment for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region of China, Myanmar and Thailand. One of the components of the project, which began in 2011, has been to detect TB earlier in high-risk groups, such as people with diabetes mellitus. With research showing that people with diabetes mellitus are more than three times more likely to develop active TB than people without diabetes, effective cross-screening of these populations is essential to reducing the impact of both diseases.